What is the best home defense rifle? If you’re asking that question, chances are you already own a rifle or have one in mind to buy. Rob Pincus talks about some of the common types of rifles you may already own that may not be as good for self defense or home defense situations, and then reveals what he recommends as the best home defense rifle.

High-Powered Hunting Rifle

This is the most common type of rifle that a person thinking about home defense may already own. Why is it not a good choice for home defense? Generally, high-powered hunting rifles have slow rates of fire, are heavy and long, which makes them difficult to use in confined spaces, and that high-powered rifle cartridge is probably going to go through a bad guy and maybe a wall or two behind him.

.22 Long Rifle

This has some of the same disadvantages as the high-powered hunting rifle, in that it is large and slow to fire, but now we’re on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of caliber and power. Now we have a small round that isn’t potentially going to do the damage we need it to do to a bad guy. A semiautomatic .22 is very fast to fire, but may have reliability issues.

Lever-Action Rifle

Now we’re in what Rob considers an acceptable realm of defensive long gun. Lever-action rifles are generally short, controllable, relatively high capacity, and use medium-caliber rifle cartridges or high-caliber pistol cartridges.

The Best Home Defense Rifle

In Rob’s opinion, this is the medium-caliber semiautomatic rifle, such as an AR-15 or civilian version of the AK. It’s powerful enough to do the kind of damage it needs to do to a home invader, and it can hold 30 rounds or even more.

Rob Pincus and Deryck Poole work with a student on the range to refine his shooting position. Whenever you are training for defensive shooting, you should try to maintain a natural and neutral stance with your feet about equidistant from the target and your weight forward. Related videos: Problem Solving on the Range: Realistic Engagement

Rob Pincus reviews the key components to a efficient reload from bolt-lock with an AR type defensive rifle. Keeping the rifle in the ready position means that it will be easier to get the gun back into a shooting position, if necessary, when your reload is complete.